Huge 'Stranger Things' IMDb Leak May Reveal a New Human Villain in Season 3

With Stranger Things Season 3 and a trailer likely still months away from being released, fans are eagerly grabbing onto any new information they can get their hands on. Plenty of theories have been floated about the upcoming season, but a new leak may actually reveal some shocking details about the future of Stranger Things — assuming it’s true, that is.

Possible spoilers for Stranger Things Season 3 below.

Ready for the big spoiler? The villain of Stranger Things Season 3 could be… Soviet Russia!

Yes, seriously. But before we go any further, it’s worth noting this leak comes from IMDb, which isn’t always the most reliable source. After all, anyone can edit IMDb, but there’s still a lot of evidence to suggest that in this case, the rumors could be true. With that said, let’s dive in.

It all started in late November when redditor u/Charlie780561 spotted some interesting cast information on the Stranger Things IMDb page. The site listed several characters, including a “Russian soldier,” “Russian Officer,” and “Russian Goon.” However, by mid-December, those references to Russia had be scrubbed from IMDb.

“Now they are just described as Guard, Soldier, etc,” the redditor wrote.

However, Netflix may have failed to remove all the spoilers on IMDb. If you look at the cast list for Season 3, Ryan Mari is still listed under “Series Stunts” as a “Russian guard” for three episodes in 2019: “The Sauna Test,” “The Bite,” and “The Battle of Starcourt” (according to his page).

Ryan Mari's IMDb page may hint at what's to come in 'Stranger Things' Season 3

“It most likely was a major spoiler as we suspected,” they suggest, adding in a comment, “I [was] just surprised that they took out ‘Russian’ as if that somehow [was] used to spoil the plot.”

Remember, it is possible that was just an error, or someone pulling a prank. But the fact that someone else acted so quickly in scrubbing much of the leaked IMDb info suggests we might actually be onto something here.

Assuming this really is a Stranger Things leak, what does it mean? Could there be some sort of connection between the Russians and the new Starcourt Mall? That’s what redditor u/jimbo805 argues in a recent post, pointing specifically to the Season 3 episode “Mall Rats.

“We’ll discover that Starcourt Industries, which owns and runs the mall, is actually a Soviet front,” they write. “The ‘rats’ are actually Soviet spies. We’ll begin to learn what these rats are up to. (In 1985 ‘Russia’ did not exist as a country. What we now call Russia was then known as the Soviet Union.) I think we’ll also see the Soviet spies engaging with Billy subverting him to do some of their dirty work.”

That might be a bit of a stretch, but if this leak is correct then Stranger Things Season 3 could see Will, Eleven, and the rest of the gang take on something even scarier than the Mind Flayer: Communism.

Stranger Things Season 3 will be streaming on Netflix in 2019.

Related video: Check out all the episode titles for Stranger Things Season 3.